Monday, June 20, 2011

Another Day Another Meal

I must admit I have a love/hate relationship with grills. I love the results when it all works but more often than not I find them lacking. I think I've used at least half a dozen different models and currently have 2 grills and a smoker in the stable.

My latest grill is a propane Master Forge model from Lowes, which satisfies one of my requirements. Grills burn up and you need an easy source for replacement parts as you burn them up. This grill has a sear burner which deals with my next complaint, not enough heat to cook a steak charred and rare (also called blue or pittsburgh on the east coast).

Well I tried it for the first time on Dad's day. I cooked one steak 5 minutes per side on the grill and obtained nice grill marks and a steak done medium-rare. The other steak went on the sear burner for just 2 minutes per side. Voila! charred and rare (you know actually raw in the center). This was the steak in the photo.

And now for the next test, rotisserie chicken. My last grill was a Nexus that had an infrared back burner that would selectively burn a chicken on the spit while leaving the bird otherwise uncooked. Here's the results using the new grill:

The bird came out evenly cooked with crispy skin in an hour. I started on high but turned it down to low after 15 minutes. The bird was left uncovered in the refrigerator for a couple of days to dry it out (from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc) and the skin was lifted from the body to create an air pocket (from America's Test Kitchen).

I rubbed the bird with a mixture olive oil, garlic and lemon juice, then sprinkled poultry seasoning and smoked paprika as the bird turned.